Every sport in the world has rules for overtime. Whether you’re playing soccer and line up for penalty shots or getting extra time in basketball, every game must end. In the world of esports, there is no titan quite like VALVE’s Counter-Stike. Two teams of five battle it out in a best of 24 rounds. But what happens when two teams tie on rounds? How does Counter-Strike handle overtime? The world found out just how far overtime is able to go on September 11th, 2024 at ESL Pro League.
Two Legendary Counter-Strike Teams
The world sat down to watch fnatic and M80 duke it out on the virtual battlefield. Fnatic is a professional team that has been around for decades, boasting incredible players with a similar amount of experience. They would have to go head to head versus M80, a quickly rising team of North American prodigies. Teams sat down to pick maps, deciding on Anubis, Inferno, and Ancient, and with that the game was on.
Anubis: the Map Played Around the Clock
Both teams load up on Anubis, an attacker sided map. Despite the slight advantage attackers have these two teams were playing some incredible Counter-Strike. The rising stars on M80 were able to go toe to toe with the experienced players of fnatic, though not to say fnatic’s experience didn’t shine through. The two teams clashed taking rounds off of each other back and forth until they found themselves tied, 12-12.
The World Is Over Overtime
Tied game, elimination right over the horizon for both teams. If fnatic or M80 want to keep playing in this Counter-Strike tournament they know they have to lock in during overtime. When a Counter-Strike match ties and goes into overtime 6 more rounds are added to the game. Three rounds teams will attack while the other defends, then the sides are swapped for the remaining three. The first team to win four of the six rounds wins the entire game. The issue with these overtime rules is that if the two teams manage to tie again, three rounds each, six more rounds are added and players enter overtime two. Just like the original twenty four rounds, M80 and fnatic played toe to toe with each other through overtime. Then, they played evenly matched through overtime again… and again… and again. The two teams played through EIGHT overtime rounds to decide only the first map in a best of three. The final score of the map was 34-37 with M80 finally pinching out a fourth overtime round win. That’s enough rounds in one map to have decided the entire best of 3 match. Luckily, M80 won map two with only a single overtime and the world didn’t have to sit through another three hour long match.
